Audit of Canada native band casts cloud on protest movement

OTTAWA - A Canadian native band that successfully pressured the prime minister to hold a special meeting on aboriginal grievances cannot account for millions of dollars in federal funding, according an audit that critics say was leaked to discredit a growing protest movement.

Angry native activists, fed up with poor living conditions they blame on decades of neglect from Ottawa, have already blockaded rail lines and threatened to close Canada's borders with the United States as part of a protest campaign they are calling Idle No More.

The August 2012 report from accounting firm Deloitte said the Attawapiskat First Nation in northern Ontario had shown "no evidence of due diligence" in accounting for how it had spent federal money designed to improve housing and health.